Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Another myth coming out of the Romney camp is that he is the ‘economy candidate’. The problem is, and we’ve seen this movie before, his rhetoric doesn’t match his record. His four-year record as Governor of Massachusetts shows a substantial increase in fees and taxes, low job growth, and a large exodus of residents from the state. As Michael Widmer, president of the independent Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, told Reuters, "There's never been under his watch an economic turnaround to speak of," further saying, "We added a few jobs over the last three years of his tenure but very few. He also raised corporate taxes and fees and the (deficit) gap turned out to be less than $3 billion."

Governor Romney has made a habit of making inaccurate claims about his record throughout this race, but ironically you don’t even have to go back that far to see that Governor Romney is not a fiscal conservative. First, he supported farm and ethanol subsidies in Iowa. Senator McCain was considered politically crazy for not pandering to Iowans and stated his opposition to farm and ethanol subsidies relaying his dedication to free trade principles. In Michigan Governor Romney offered voters a $20 billion bailout to the auto industry, not something a fiscal conservative would do. Senator McCain instead told the truth that many of these jobs are not coming back, and offered a retraining program for displaced workers. Now that the race is headed down to Florida Governor Romney is offering incentives to the elderly. Governor Romney’s claim of being conservative is not only a turn-around from his record in Massachusetts, they’re a turn-around from statements he made just a few weeks ago.

Now the Governor is criticizing Senator McCain’s position on the Bush Tax Cuts. Senator McCain has clearly stated that he wanted spending cuts to accompany tax cuts, and if you look at his record and the record of congress over the last eight years its clear that there has been a massive government spending problem that he has battled against. He supports extending the tax cuts because a repeal would be practically the same as a tax increase, which he has never supported. That is a fiscal conservative. Now Governor Romney is offering a huge economic stimulus package the dwarfs President Bush’s. That is not a good thing, and not a conservative thing, that money has to come from somewhere, which in the end means it comes from the voters pockets. Senator McCain instead offers a series of corporate tax breaks, and tax incentives for start-up businesses and for research and development. Choosing to focus on stimulating growth and ingenuity over massive bailouts. The beauty and the frustration of running against a candidate such as Governor Romney whose rhetoric doesn’t match his record is that there is plenty of documentation to show what his record really is. So feel free to not believe me just check the record, and learn for yourself that this newly dubbed ‘economy candidate’ looks a lot like a Liberal.

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